Stanza News: London (north of the river)
Choose from:
Forest Gate
North London
W3/W4
Waltham Forest
Forest Gate
Contact: Jenny Shepherd (jennylshepherd AT googlemail.com or 020 8519 4827)
* We have decided to try a regular, weekday evening slot, to see if that might attract a few more members, so had our first one at 7:30pm on Tuesday 16 February (till about 9:30). 3 out of our 4 usual members attended, despite it being a horrible, wet and windy night!
* We will be aiming to have meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month, so our next meeting will be Tuesday 16 March, also at 7:30pm. Contact Jenny for details.
North London
Contact: Katherine Gallagher (020 8881 1418 or mail AT katherine-gallagher.com)
* Our Stanza is going fine. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, some are unable to attend our monthly first Friday meetings at Hornsey Library. However, Stanza support is always forthcoming for events concerning members - for example, Maggie Butt's launch recently of her latest collection, Petite, (Hearing Eye).
We have two special events coming up . We'd love to see you there.
* Thursday, March 18 - Salisbury House Poets 10th Year Anniversary Poetry Gala - Poetry & Jazz
at the Dugdale Centre, Thomas Hardy House, London Road, Enfield Town, EN2 6DS - 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm featuring Mario Petrucci, Abe Gibson, Katherine Gallagher, Angela J Elliott & Louis Cennamo Jazz Group and the Salisbury House Poets. Refreshments. RSVP Victoria Sanderson - 0208 379 1461
email: Victoria.Sandersoon AT enfield.gov.uk Tickets - £5
* Saturday, April 17 - Palmers Green Poetry - featuring Katherine Gallagher reading from her latest collection, Carnival Edge: New & Selected Poems, Mark Roper, Lynda How & Christine Vial. Readers from the floor. 7.30 pm. Refreshments, at St. John's, Junction Green Lanes & Bourne Hill, N.13. Info: Tel: 8886 1329 /8881 1418 E: myra.sch AT ukonline.co.uk £5, £3.50 (concs.)
West London (W3 & W4)
Contact: Robbie Pearson (ahjay at hotmail.co.uk or 020 8993 3237 or 0750 637 2983)
The next meeting of the West London Stanza is Monday 22nd March at 8:00pm. We have decided to concentrate on work expressing relationships with or as parents, but without any kind of three line whip!
Waltham Forest
Contact: Paul McGrane (020 7420 9881 or membership at poetrysociety.org.uk)
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Waltham Forest Stanza, September 2009. L to R (seated) Derrick Porter, Jane Colman, Julia Clarke, Nancy Campbell, Roger Huddle. L to R (standing) Tiffany Tondut, Paul McGrane, Mike Sims, Leo Ezeogu, Karen Lomas, Norman Andrews, Jem Brookes.
We are a friendly bunch and our Stanza is open to everyone - please contact Paul to ensure there is enough space available. We only started in June 2009 and we're currently running monthly meetings, focusing on giving feedback to each other's 'poems in progress'. (Each person reads their poem, with no introduction, and then remains quiet while the rest of the group give an appraisal). We open up each meeting with either a poem by someone else, or a quick writing exercise. We also have a poetry 'book swap' where yoou can bring in a poetry book for someone else in the group to borrow, or borrow one yourself.
Meetings take place in the Red Room, Ye Olde Rose and Crown, Walthamstow - 5 mins from the Walthamstow Central tube. www.roseandcrowntheatrepub.webeden.co.uk/, 53 Hoe St, London E17 4SA (pub contact is 0208 509 3880)
* Saturday March 13th, 10.30am to 4.30pm: Karen Lomas from the Waltham Forest Stanza, will be at Waterstone’s in Walthamstow signing copies of her book I wish I had been born from you. "I’d love you to pop in and enjoy the home-made cup-cakes and goodies I’ll also be offering."
* 7 of us were present at the 9 February session - Me, Mike, Norman, Julia, Anna, Karen, Derrick.
Anna kicked off with a poem by Mebh McGuckian - Four O'Clock Summer Street. Read the poem at http://faculty.vassar.edu/mijoyce/ClodaghWeb/poems/fouroclo.html and some interesting comment on
http://faculty.vassar.edu/mijoyce/ClodaghWeb/unconsci/fouroclo.html
We experimented with poems being read by someone else in the group other than the author, starting with Karen's poem 'Under the Microscope', read by Mike. Comparisons were made to Syliva Plath's 'The Applicant' www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1437 in that it's a barrage of aggressive questions thrown at the 'you' in the poem (a person/couple wanting to adopt a child) until, exhausted, we get to 'And then, you will, in time, / Take her home.' Echoes, too, of Jackie Kay's 'The Adoption Papers' www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-the-adoption-papers-jackie-kay-814970.html. Everyone's invited to Karen's book signing at Waterstone's in Walthamstow on Saturday 13 March.
Next up was Mike's 'That Terror Fox', read by Julia. Lots of hard 'k' sounds, 'squirts a curling turd', 'screeches, skitters...', 'shrieked', mirroring the 'k' in 'fox', until the fox 'winked - the sign / of wickedness to come'. Continuing Mike's series of fox poems and discussion invevitably brought comparisons to Ted Hughes's 'The Thought Fox' www.richardwebster.net/tedhughes.html
Norman's 'Accountant Working At Home' (read by Karen) was from his collection Ipecac and Old Snapshots www.flipkart.com/ipecac-old-snapshots-norman-andrews/1844263576-6zx3f02ntc - in which another fox appears, to an accountant, who believes the fox to be mocking him with 'Your world / is a world within my world.' and 'I live beside you and you see me only / when I choose, when I arrive.'
Finally, my 'the joy of owing a poet' (read by Norman), a found poem from an article on pet-care, with the word poet replacing 'pet' - where, with care, poets can be 'not just a summer diversion / a happy and enduring time'
* NEXT SESSION: will be 16 March. PLEASE RSVP to let me know if you can make it. Norman will start us off with poem by someone else, then we'll workshop poems as usual. Poems on the theme of 'Crusades' will be given priority.
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